because you never know someone from the very beginning

I love the idea of time capsules. If I could, I would pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall in 1977 in our house just to peek into the cupboard, fridge and closets and listen in on what happened in our house. Since that’s not possible, I often scratch around for seemingly mundane details about our family history. Ask your parents what they used to like for lunch and you’re likely to get a cornucopia of interesting details. When I asked my mom about lunch I didn’t get “tuna on rye” I got something more like this “well there was a time when all I ate were avocados with dressing. it used to drive mother crazy. this was perhaps the result of spending summers in Honolulu with Mammy…”

As you can see, she was off and running.

So I thought I would note a few mundane details of our lives today (and yesterday) as clues for our kids and grandkids to scratch around with later. Here goes:

Most mornings I read The New York Times on the subway on my iphone. 25 minute ride. On my way home I read a book – also iphone. Or The New Yorker. I very rarely “catch up on email” on my way to and from the office. I love the commute. If I am feeling the need for a little peace, I listen to a Tara Brach podcast. Crunchy Zen Wonderfulness.

Your dad and I often ride in on the subway together and we both read the paper. So we don’t talk much but it’s nice to be together.

There is a lot of iced coffee in our lives. And Simply Grapefruit juice. We let you kids drink juice and might be in the minority among folks we know.

Life is filled with Spotify playlists. Some new, lots of old, some dad, some bold (ha!).

We do a lot of online shopping. Diapers, groceries, clothes. Offline shopping has fallen by the wayside with kids. There is no time and I don’t miss it. There is one notable offline exception – Fairway. You kids think going to Fairway for food shopping is akin to a trip to the aquarium with a little sightseeing thrown in (meaning, a lobster tank practically with a view of the Statue of Liberty).

I keep my book lists on Goodreads. I used to keep a journal of books read, and then I posted a list on this blog, and then a good system came around (goodreads). I have started an account for Avery.

I am amazed at the amount of milk we go through in our house. About a half gallon every day and a half.

We almost always have ice cream sandwiches and Kozy Shack pudding in the house.

I like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. I wonder if any of these will be relevant when you kids are reading this.

Emailfills much of our days. I try hard to control and manage this mostly through a series of ignoring tactics. This is effective if you can deal with the anxiety of the unknown. I also wonder how you kids will communicate at work since when I started work there was no email. There was no file server. There was definitely no Wifi.

Thanks to your dad we have a lot of wine and beer in the house. Really, thanks to ClubW and Bierkraft (and Lagunitas) that is.

We read a lot of Goodnight Moon and make up the story around Goodnight Gorilla. There are card games that Avery is learning (as frustrating as that is) but Uno really can be fun. We’re halfway through Charlotte’s Web and I’m excited to learn how she saves Wilbur – though Avery informed me she knows since she saw the movie and that was just as fun. Harumph.

You two share a room and I wonder how long we can make that last. It seems pretty nice so far. Avery’s side is painted a special color and the room is small but bright and cheerful and filled with books…and shoes. You two seem to have a lot of shoes always.

Avery always loves an office visit SO…in my office I have a phone, a bowl of mini candy bars, sanitizer, a small buddha statue, a lamp, speakers, too many files, a jelly belly machine, a voodoo Goddess Of The Office doll, family pictures, very dated deal tombstones, two windows that open, Avery’s art on the walls, business books I have never and will never read, really beautiful shoes that would probably kill me if I wore them now, a bottle of wine with a yellow taxi on the label, and a box of twelve Tiffany crystal champagne flutes that were a wedding gift which I know we will get home someday.

We have a garden that your father tends. There are flowers and herbs. There are tomatoes but they keep getting eaten.

And for the truly mundane but interesting to me – there are always Nutri-Grain Bars, Ritz Crackers, cranraisin something or others, Annie’s Mac & Cheese and pasta dishes, you both seem to love liverwurst yet avoid sandwiches. Fried eggs over pasta with parmesan is a house quick favorite dish. Greek yogurt. Tide. Johnson’s Baby Wash Original for every day and California Baby for when we are feeling extravagant.

I like Red Flower, myself. And even now if I smell 4711 or VitaBath I am right back in Sodus or Hyattsville. Not exactly time travel but pretty darn close.

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Kylie Sachs

In no particular order, things about me: mother, wife, daughter, sister, CFO, investor.
Things of interest, also in no particular order: young companies; education; day to day operational combat; cooking; writing; eating; menu planning; puzzles; wine; child development; things that make people laugh; real connections more than just cyber connections.

TV — the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evenings; Walt Disney’s world also on Sunday; Mickey Mouse Club around 5 pm on week nights; staring at the test screen in awe and wonder when we first got our first TV — screen was probably about 10″ x 8″. Oh yea – Saturday morning was the BESt — great cartoons, The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Sky King, Hoppalong Cassidy………. there was some news in the mornings —then nothing until evening.